The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

January 18, 2015

January 18, 1880

Paul Ehrenfest (January 18, 1880 to September 25, 1933) is a name well known to historians and scientists. This is because of his contributions to quantum mechanics. He and Einstein were good friends. His post at University of Leiden meant that he entertained the visiting Einstein, Apparently Einstein had changed his plans so often he provoked Ehrenfest into
this charming expostulation, in a letter to Berlin, dated March 13, 1922:

Dear Einstein,

The devil take you -to Leyden. You drive your contemporaries crazy, ...with your routine activities...Now you are piping yet another tune and want to come "through" Leyden and not "to" Leyden. (On April 7 not a single cat - except me - will be in Leyden anymore!) Oh my, oh my oh my! - I'd as soon take a mortgage on a soap bubble than you.

We found this bit in Einstein's newly available, in English, correspondence. Talk about soap bubbles: in another decade Ehrenfest will have taken his own life, and Einstein will have fled the European continent.

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